This invention deals with an apparatus that is useful for handling small segments of wire that is to be welded. Coiled wire is commercially packed, shipped and stored in a coiled configuration, most of the time using a storage container. However, this packed commercial wire is usually packed in large quantities, that is, many hundreds of feet which cannot be carried by any workman.
There exists equipment that is useful for handling large quantities of stored wire when used in a welding apparatus. Such equipment can be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/931,007, filed Jan. 21, 2011 in the name of Thomas W. Burns, the inventor in this patent application.
What is disclosed and claimed herein is a small device that allows one to carry a small quantity of wire along with the equipment to feed the wire into a welding apparatus.
In use for welding, where the wire is fed to a welding gun, the wire enters the gun through the rear of the gun and is subjected to electrical energy wherein it melts and is placed into channels in the metal to be welded to form a weld bead.
Even with small quantities of wire, if not controlled, the wire, upon leaving the tip of the welding gun, and before it is melted, typically bends in any given direction and does not lay into the channel to form the bead. Thus, one is forced to use very short segments of wire (which do not retain the cast of the coiled wire), or the wire is short enough that it can be hand bent to get rid of the wire cast and provide a straight piece of wire.
Even in longer segments, the wire, if not controlled, tends to re-coil, that is, attempts to resume its original cast, or bends out of linearity and causes disruptions in the equipment, which causes a disruption of the welding process and a possible shutdown of the equipment for repair. It also provides snarled and bent wire which is useless for re-use and is costly to replace.